CHAPTER XIX.
THE MEKONG AND SALWEEN RIVERS--HOW TO TRAVEL IN CHINA.
To-day, May 7th, we crossed the River Mekong, even at this distance from Siam a broad and swift stream.

The river flows into the light from a dark and gloomy gorge, takes a sharp bend, and rolls on between the mountains.

Where it issues from the gorge a suspension bridge has been stretched across the stream.

A wonderful pathway zigzags down the face of the mountain to the river, in an almost vertical incline of 2000ft.
At the riverside an embankment of dressed stone, built up from the rock, leads for some hundreds of feet along the bank, where there would otherwise have been no foothold, to the clearing by the bridge.

The likin-barrier is here, and a teahouse or two, and the guardian temple.
The bridge itself is graceful and strong, swinging easily 30ft.